For an organisation dedicated to maintaining the stability of global finance, the International Monetary Fund has had remarkably little to do as that system has reached the brink of crisis.

With the financial turmoil centred in the rich countries, which can usually generate enough resources to bail themselves out of problems, its role has been confined to providing advice which governments have been free to ignore. That might change, as the crisis has spread among the fund’s traditional emerging market clients and its dire warnings about the fragility of global finance and the economy have come true.